


Time for change

by Appreciatedvillain



Series: What if...? [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen, Kinda, Slow To Update, what if
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27955904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Appreciatedvillain/pseuds/Appreciatedvillain
Summary: What if Acronix was the one to wait forty years?
Relationships: Acronix & Krux (Ninjago)
Series: What if...? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047364
Comments: 11
Kudos: 25





	1. A twist in time

**Author's Note:**

> Also in podfic version here:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/28508244/chapters/69855459
> 
> Check it out, WhaleKingdom (BadFeelin) does a really great job

Acronix and Krux both seemed to have the same thought as they watched the blades that now held the power they once possessed ascend into the time vortex. _This can't be happening! How could they have tricked us like that? We were supposed to win!_ Garmadon and Wu looked calm as they stared up at what they had created. Like everything was suddenly alright now that they had taken away their powers. But it wasn't. They had made it so much worse for themselves.

"It appears like this will be the end of the Hands of Time," the older brother taunted them with a smile. Or maybe he wasn't taunting and just speaking his mind. It didn’t matter since the words were enough to make Acronix’s blood boil. "Ninjago will stay safe..." Garmadon really thought they were the bad guys. They all did. Their element was the strongest there was, stronger than those of anyone else. They were the most powerful of them all! The strongest people should lead and yet all they had ever done was follow Wu's and Garmadon's stupid orders! Why shouldn't they get to call the shots?

"For now, brother," Wu added. "There are still many challenges before this land can be called peaceful." Peaceful. There was only one kind of peaceful for the Masters of Creation and Destruction. And it wasn’t what the time twins had agreed to.

The twins' initial shock and fear had slowly turned into untamed rage. How dared they simply ignore them?! How could they just act like they had done the right thing?! Did they not realize the consequences of their actions?! They had just wanted to take their rightful place at the top! Acronix clenched his teeth. They had taken no offense previously. They had thought that they would realize who was in the wrong and who was in the right soon enough. But now it had gotten personal... He heard his brother growl beside him. _We can't let this allow to happen! This is not how we will go down!_ Acronix thought.

They fought back against the other Elemental Masters holding them and managed to push them back. Their former allies had not anticipated this and were knocked to the ground with little effort. It was foolish of them to think that the Hands of Time would just stop fighting after they had stolen their powers. With or without them, the twins were a force to be reckoned with. They were wise to remember that.

The Masters of Time exchanged a quick glance, already knowing what the other twin thought. Krux nodded and Acronix smirked back at him. The older twin had decided. There was no other way but to follow their powers. The Hands of Time let themselves get pulled into the time vortex. The Elemental Maters yelled after them, told them to come back and face a trial but their calls went ignored. They were not going back. Why would they think that they would listen now, after everything the Elemental Alliance had done to them?

They flew into the tunnel with a speed that even they had not expected. Red, green, blue and yellow light surrounded them. The blades were right in front of them, close enough that they could see them, but still so far away. No amount of effort would get them there. All they could do was wait until they were released. But Krux still tried to reach it. Acronix couldn't help but chuckle. He had always been the stubborn one.

They had been in the vortex for only a few seconds or maybe an eternity, but the path in front of them was splitting into six separate tunnels. The Slo-Mo Time Blade was the first one to drift away. Within a few seconds, it had disappeared out of the vortex. The Reversal Time Blade was the next to go. It slowly dawned on Acronix that they wouldn't make this journey together and his panicked gaze met that of his twin. He hadn’t realized how the distance between them had grown bigger.

"Brother!" As they were slowly pulled farther and farther away from each other, he could only watch his twin try to get closer to him to grab him. It was almost funny watching him flail about to get closer to him. Krux's eyes were widening in fear. His older brother was scared... He was never scared... Krux always had a plan, he always knew how to turn the tables in their favor, he knew what to do to save them... "We will find each other again! No matter the time we will-"

_"Brother!"_ Acronix screamed as he was pulled in one of the tunnels. The younger twin stared at his brother's sorrowful expression as he drifted further away, and Krux was also pulled into one of the tunnels and disappeared from his field of vision. He could only cry in fear, yelling his brother's name over and over again until the vortex spit him out.

He felt his body starting to fall but had a hard time caring much about it. His twin brother was... gone. The stubborn idiot who always acted annoyed and took offense in everything he did was gone. _Lost in time._ Even if he managed to get out, how much time separated the two? A few days? A few _centuries?_ One of them might be dead if the other one arrived. If Krux even came at all.

As Acronix stared at the closing vortex he blinked as something appeared inside it. The moon was shining a ghostly green... a Yin-Yang Eclipse if he remembered correctly... it was a sign. It was foretelling Krux's return, he realized. His brother had always been interested in history and culture. Krux was always so proud to know something his twin didn't and explained everything in detail to annoy Acronix. And he had analyzed the event just months prior, when they were still part of the alliance. Acronix was lucky he knew so much thanks to his brother. As the time vortex closed, the younger twin landed with his feet on the ground,, his eyes filled with determination.

But the next Yin-Yang Eclipse was about forty years away! How could he be able to wait so long? Acronix wasn't a strategist like his brother was. He was a fighter. For as long as he could remember, he had attacked without a plan until Krux started telling him a somewhat decent plan. Even now, the idea of sitting around and doing nothing left a bitter taste in his mouth. He was not far away from the monastery. He could just continue fighting against the cursed Elemental Masters.

But if he started fighting now, he would just end up in prison. He could be as good as he wanted as a fighter, without his powers he would lose. Besides, Krux couldn't arrive in a future in which his twin was already locked away. If he did, then their battles would have been for nothing. They would have lost their powers just to lose immediately forty years later. No, he would make his brother proud. He needed to lay low and plan for his brother's return.

A sudden flash of light interrupted his thoughts as the time vortex reappeared and something started falling out. He quickly backed away to avoid a direct hit as he realized it had to be one of the blades. A direct hit could have major consequences. He really did not want to know what they could be, at least not if he was the one facing those consequences. The Blade hit the ground, and the grass nearby started shrinking, the trees leafs began turning back into buds.

"The Reversal Time Blade..." he gasped and slowly pulled it out of the ground. “Well, they do say that sometimes you just have to wait until something almost falls on your head.” The sensation of the blade in his hand left him shivering. It felt good to hold some power over time again, yet it still felt so wrong. This wasn’t his own power. It was Krux’s. It was comforting to possess something that reminded him of his brother, but it rightfully belonged to someone else. It was simple theft.

Oh, he would plot against the Elemental Masters and get revenge. He would just have to wait until his brother was back and stay out of trouble until then. They were unbeatable together. He would just have to wait.

_I can do this. For you, brother._


	2. Changes

Acronix knew that he had no chance to stay unnoticed if he didn't change his appearance as soon as possible. What he needed was a completely different identity. He would have to blend in and be a part of the crowd, someone who would be unnoticed for the longest time. The idea was just so infuriating! He was an Elemental Master, a fearless warrior! But he needed to keep going for Krux. Even if he hated the idea of hiding like a coward, it just wasn't worth it.

For a few hours, he had been walking through the woods, holding the Time Blade close to his chest. If had he not gotten used to constantly training his body, he might have felt exhausted and tired. But the twins had always pushed themselves to their limits. The Elemental Masters however, did not. Most of them relied too much on just their powers on the battlefield. His brother had always criticized it. Their powers were always their primary weapon. Yes, just shoot fire at the snakes or make them levitate instead of attacking them with a weapon and only using their own power when it was absolutely necessary. Using them constantly just didn't make them strong. It just made them dependent on their powers alone. Unlike them, he and Krux were still great warriors without their abilities to control time. But that didn't mean they would just give up their powers. The power over time was _theirs_. He hated it. They had no right to decide who was allowed to have this ability.

"Thinking about it is just going to make me want to attack them," he muttered to himself. "I'll just focus on the plan instead." His current goal was to find people that were living secluded, so he could steal some clothes from them, maybe even get his hands on a knife to cut his hair and shave. Now he had to be a simple thief just to get unrecognized. Acronix's life was falling apart right before his eyes.

He had considered asking for clothes at first, but his appearance was just too... unique. Even if the chance of some citizens talking to the Elemental Masters was low, he just couldn't risk it. Neither could he risk showing anyone the Time Blade. Not when the Elemental Alliance knew they could appear at any time. They would be paranoid for a while. Especially Wu and Garmadon. They had always got on his nerves. When had they ever acted like normal people? Definitely not around him and Krux. They always seemed to think they were better than everyone else.

Finally, he reached the edge of the forest. There was a small village not so far away. Perfect. He couldn't help but grin as he came out of the woods. Acronix could make out a house very close to the woods. And what was right next to the house? A clothesline. "When you need to hide from the world, there will always be a clothesline somewhere." A grin flashed on his face. Luck? No, he didn't need luck. This was just how life was supposed to be. He made sure nobody was around to see him before he made his way towards the house.

He watched from behind a large wood pile as a woman hung out the laundry. From the looks of it, someone in her family had about the same size as him. The clothes may have been a _bit_ bigger than he had hoped, but that wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Acronix had to wait for ten minutes until she was done and went back into the house. Just to be safe, he stayed in his hiding spot for a few minutes longer until he was certain she wouldn’t come back in a while. It had been a while since he had sneaked around so much. Usually he could rely on his powers and fighting abilities.

He grabbed some brown, unremarkable clothes and made his way back to the woodpile. As he was struggling to put on the new clothes, his eyes fell on a small puddle. He blinked and stared at his reflection. He looked so... different. A little older. It was strange how a simple change of clothes could make such a difference. Only now it occurred to him that he would be the older twin when his brother was finally back. No, he had already been the older twin four minutes after his arrival. He hadn't even noticed. It was so absurd. Acronix chuckled as he invisioned his twin's reaction. Krux would be furious for sure. He had always liked feeling superior to his brother, even if he never admitted it.

The former Master of Time knew he should probably get rid of his old clothes. But he just couldn’t get rid of them. They were a sign of pride and power. Wu might have called it arrogance, but he didn’t care. It was his identity. He wouldn’t just give it up. He could wrap them around the blade and nobody would be suspicious.

Now there was only his hair to take care of. This was undoubtedly the worst part. He just didn’t want to. His hair was a part of who he was. Getting rid of it was like getting rid of a part of his soul. But as much as he hated it, he had to. Becoming someone else was the whole point. There was even an axe he could use to cut it, so there was not even an excuse to wait.

He had had long hair for over a decade. It made him Acronix.

For as long as he could remember, the twins had been compared to each other. How could one of them be better at something than the other? It had always been infuriating. They were different, so why did people think they were the same? Just because they were twins they were apparently similar. For the first few years, they had tried to be similar and meet everyone’s expectations. It had only made things even worse. It didn’t even matter how different they behaved, someone always mixed them up. So they had changed their hairstyles to look as different as possible. Finally, they had started being separate people. They didn’t need to please others, they could be who they wanted to be. And now he would just cut his hair short again...?

Reluctantly, he took the axe in his right hand. It didn’t look as sharp as he had expected, but it would still cut through his hair with little force. “The things I do for Krux...” he muttered. It wouldn’t even look good. He had never cut his hair before, especially not with an axe. If he had a knife it might look better, but stealing something from inside the house could end horribly. With a sigh, he took some strands of hair and cut them off.

“This concludes that being a warrior doesn’t qualify you as a barber.” It certainly didn’t look as bad as it could have. That was good. Yes, it was cut askew and some flicks of hair were longer than others, but at least there was no bald spot. He still hadn’t gotten rid of his goatee though. Shaving himself with an axe was where he drew the line.

For a moment, he stared at all the hair he had cut off. It was such a waste. Years of having it grow was lost all because the Elemental Alliance were a bunch of cowards. Just in case a member of the family would come to the woodpile, he kicked his hair in the puddle. He may not be as strategic as his brother, but he was not an idiot.

“I need a place to hide. If I stay so close to the monastery I will get caught eventually...” A few secluded places crossed his mind, but they were all inhabited by some Elemental Master. Most of them were happy with spending their lives isolated from normal humans. They would rather be left alone than get asked for help all the time. It was one of the few things Krux had agreed with. Acronix... not so much.

“No, I’m not going to hide in a small village!” He shook his head. Why couldn’t he do something worthwhile? He had to wait four decades for his brother. Why couldn’t he wait in Ninjago City? Surely he would get to experience changes firsthand. After all, its inhabitants always came up with new inventions. Some of them could be useful for their revenge. Besides, Ninjago City was the capital of Ninjago. There was no place with as many people. It would be easy to hide among the crowd.

It would take a while to get to the city. But he had all the time in the world.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Time for change(PODFIC)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28508244) by [WhaleKingdom (BadFeelin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadFeelin/pseuds/WhaleKingdom)




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